Room sterilization method and system

Abstract

A sterilization system consisting of a mobile emitter, a sensing subsystem and a data logging subsystem is described. The emitter has one or more UV emitting lamps or devices. The sensing system comprises at least one remote UV sensor and at least one door sensor. The door sensor comprises a safety shut off door detector and may contain an emergency stop detector and arming detector to protect people from being exposed to UV energy. The system has a remote control for starting, stopping and setting system parameters which include but are not limited to: treatment time, dosage, room size, room number, unit number, floor, facility name, operator name, operator identification number, password, default dosage values, dosage, and patient identification number. The number of treatments per unit of time can be maximized because of the use of incident light measurement.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A tangible computer-readable medium encoding instructions for carrying out a method comprising:
 accepting data to authenticate a user; 
 accepting from said authenticated user a set of disinfection job parameters, said set of disinfection job parameters comprising:
 a designator for a room or area to be disinfected; 
 a desired UV dosage; 
 a set of peripherals to be used in disinfecting said room or area, said set of peripherals comprising at least one safety sensor and at least one UV sensor; 
 
 accepting a door-closed signal from a door sensor coupled to a door adjacent to said room or area to be disinfected; 
 accepting an armed signal from said door sensor; 
 accepting a start instruction from said authenticated user; 
 after accepting said door-closed signal and said armed signal from said door sensor and said start instruction from said authenticated user, initiating emission of UV light from a UV emitter within said room or area to be disinfected; 
 monitoring an intensity and a cumulative dose of UV radiation received by said at least one UV sensor; 
 ceasing emission of UV light from said UV emitter when said desired UV dosage has been received by all of said at least one UV sensor; and 
 indicating a finished state to said authenticated user, said method further comprising ceasing emission of UV light from said UV emitter if said door sensor indicates that said door is open or if communication from said door sensor is interrupted; 
 ceasing emission of UV light from said UV emitter if communications from said at least one UV sensor is interrupted; and 
 
       ceasing emission of UV light from said UV emitter if an emergency stop switch is activated on said door sensor. 
     
     
       2. The tangible computer-readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein said method further comprises the step of: optionally accepting a stop instruction from said authenticated user. 
     
     
       3. The tangible computer-readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein said method further comprises: optionally accepting a pause instruction from said authenticated user; and optionally accepting a resume instruction from said authenticated user. 
     
     
       4. The tangible computer-readable medium of  claim 3 , wherein said method further comprises: recording said pause instruction and said resume instruction to allow analysis of protocol and system operation. 
     
     
       5. The tangible computer-readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein said method further comprises: reading a battery charge state from each of said sensors; notifying said authenticated user if any of said battery charge states is below a predetermined level. 
     
     
       6. The tangible computer-readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein said method further comprises: communicating with a remote computer for job reporting, remote system configuration, data back-up, diagnostics, or remote operation.